NEW DELHI — Air India announced on Tuesday that it will operate a special relief flight to bring back passengers from its San Francisco–Delhi service that was forced to make a precautionary landing in Mongolia earlier this week due to a suspected technical issue.
The airline said that flight AI174, which departed San Francisco for Delhi via Kolkata on November 2, diverted to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, after the flight crew detected a possible problem midair. “Air India will be operating a relief flight to ferry the passengers of flight AI174 (San Francisco–Delhi of 02 November), which was diverted to Ulaanbaatar on Monday. The ferry flight AI183 is scheduled to depart Delhi this afternoon and return with the affected passengers on Wednesday morning,” Air India said in a statement.
According to the airline, passengers and crew have been accommodated in hotels with assistance from local authorities and the Indian Embassy in Mongolia. “Guests have been kept informed about the arrangements being made to fly them to Delhi. At Air India, the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain top priority,” a spokesperson said.
The diverted aircraft landed safely in Ulaanbaatar and is currently undergoing technical checks.
Separately, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently granted Air India a temporary extension of flight duty limits for its two-pilot Boeing 787 Dreamliner operations on European routes. The change was prompted by longer flight paths required after the closure of Pakistani airspace. Under the revised limits, the Flight Duty Time Limitation has been increased from 10 hours to 10 hours and 30 minutes, and the Flight Duty Period from 13 hours to 14 hours.
Air India said it continues to prioritize operational safety while ensuring minimal disruption to passengers affected by the Mongolia diversion. (Source: IANS)
